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Sunday, February 28, 2016

A DEBATE: THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH VS. CONGRESSIONAL PREROGATIVES IN NATIONAL SECURITY DECISIONS. 2/29, 11:00am-1:00pm. Sponsor: American Foreign Policy Council. Speakers: Louis Fisher, Former Congressional Research Service Senior Specialist in Separation of Powers; Robert Turner, Former U.S. Senate Staffer and Executive Branch Official, Co-Founder, Center for National Security Law, University of Virginia; Michael Chertoff, Former Secretary of Homeland Security; Jon Kyl, Former Minority Whip of the U.S. Senate.

HOW AGGRESSIVE IS CHINA? 2/29, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: George Washington University (GWU). Speakers: Robert Sutter, Professor of Practice of International Affairs, GWU; Robert Daly, Director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United Sates, Wilson Center; Amitai Etzioni, Professor of International Affairs, GWU; Mike Mochizuki, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GWU.

RESEARCHING AND DOCUMENTING THE COMFORT WOMEN HISTORY. 3/3,12:45-2:00pm. Sponsor: Sigur Center, George Washington University. Speakers: Christopher Simpson, professor of journalism, School of Communications, American University, adviser to the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group of the National Archives; Griselda Molemans, Dutch investigative journalist and researcher, founder of the Task Force for Dutch Indies War Reparations (Dutch acronym: TFIR; Task Force Indisch Rechtsherstel); Hilde Janssen, Dutch journalist and anthropologist, author Schaamte en Onschuld [Shame and Innocent] (2010) and Troostmeisjes/Comfort Women (2013) with photographer Jan Banning, bilingual Dutch and English photo book; M. Evelina Galang, professor of English, University of Miami, author, Angel de la Luna and the 5th Glorious Mystery (2013) and the forthcoming Lolas’ House: Women Living with War; Host/moderator: Mike Mochizuki, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Japan-U.S. Relations Chair in Memory of Gaston Sigur, George Washington University.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

On December 28, 2015, the Foreign Ministers of Japan and South Korea issued a joint statement on the issue of ‘comfort women’. In the December statement, Japan acknowledges that the Comfort Women existed because of “an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time” and passed on Prime Minister Shnizo Abe’s “sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.”

The statement committed the Japanese government to contributing to a fund to assist surviving South Korean former ‘comfort women’. South Korea, in turn, pledged to refrain from discussing the Comfort Women issue in public and, possibly, to remove from the entrance of the Japanese embassy in Seoul a statue symbolizing the Comfort Women. The agreement is to ensure that “this issue is resolved finally and irreversibly.”

The statement ,which reflects no written agreement, is controversial. It will not be approved by the Japanese Cabinet, thus it exists in the same legal limbo as the Kono Statement, a 1993 apology to the Comfort Women. It is unclear when the funds will be delivered to South Korea, whether the survivors will accept it, and whether there will remain any survivors. In addition, the agreement is not applicable to all the other survivors throughout Asia (at least 27 nationalities) who were forced into becoming sex slaves.

In addition, eight ad hoc Japanese Comfort Women denier groups submitted their opinions for the record to the CEDAW meeting. These are less cautious, often racist repeats the government position. Four groups also spelled out what the Japanese government meant when it said it found no documents regarding the Comfort Women in the U.S. National Archives. This is a reference to an inaccurate interpretation of the work of the Congressionally-mandated Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group at the National Archives.

A number of prominent scholars who research the history, sociology, and politics of the Imperial Japan’s sex slave system will be in Washington, DC the week of February 29th to participate in a series of seminars and programs. In addition to private briefings on Capitol Hill and a private screening of the Song of the Reed, a documentary on Taiwanese Comfort Women hosted by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Organization (TECRO), they will speak at Johns Hopkins University, SAIS and George Washington University on March 1 and 3. The schedule is as follows:

Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II – Co-editors: Margaret D. Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and Professor of Humanities at the University of Delaware and Bonnie B.C. Oh, retired as the Distinguished Professor of Korean Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the University’s Main Campus Ombuds Officer, and a past director of Women’s Studies at Georgetown University. (2001)

Mr. Christopher Simpson, professor of journalism, School of Communications, American University, adviser to the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial GovernmentRecords Interagency Working Group of the National Archives; editor of the Holmes & Meier series on Science and Human Rights of which the first book was Comfort Women Speak (edited by Christopher Simpson and Sangmie Choi Schellsted), contemporary photographs by Soon Mi Yu.Ms. Griselda Molemans, Dutch investigative reporter and researcher, founder of the Task Force for Dutch Indies War Reparations (Dutch acronym: TFIR; Task Force Indisch Rechtsherstel) author of Erfgenamen van Indië [Heirs of the Dutch East Indies] (2004), Zwarte huid, Oranje hart [Black Skin, Orange Heart] (2010), and Opgevangen in andijvielucht [Welcomed by the Smell of Endive] (Amsterdam: Quasar Books, 2014), and the forthcoming Levenslang oorlog [A Lifetime of War] (end of 2016)

TRENDS IN RUSSIAN PUBLIC OPINION UNDER PUTIN: NEW FINDINGS. 2/22, Noon-2:00pm. Sponsor: George Washington University (GWU). Speakers: Theodore P. Gerber, Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin; Henry E. Hale, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GWU; William Mishler, Professor of Government and Public Policy, University of Arizona; William Reisinger, Professor of Political Science, University of Iowa; Donna Bahry, Professor of Political Science, Pennsylvania State University; Peter Rollberg, Director, Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, GWU.

CLICK TO ORDER

THE KOREAN PENINSULA ISSUES AND UNITED STATES NATIONAL SECURITY. 2/22, 1:30- 4:30pm. Sponsor: ICAS Liberty Foundation. Speakers: David Hoppe, Chief of Staff, Office of the Speaker of the House; Robert Daly, Director, Kissinger Institute on China and the US, Wilson Center; Peter Huessy, President, GeoStrategic Analysis; James A. Lewis, Senior Vice President and Program Director, CSIS, and others.

PM
12:02 Meeting adjourns
12:03 Leave Lower House Committee Room No.1
12:05 Depart from the Diet
12:06 Arrive at the office
12:53 Depart from the office
12:55 Arrive at the Diet
12:57 Enter Lower House Committee Room No.1
01:00 Meeting of the Budget Committee of the Lower House reopens
05:04 Meeting of the Budget Committee of the Lower House adjourns
05:05 Leave Lower House Committee Room No.1
05:07 Depart from the Diet
05:08 Arrive at the office
05:13 The 1st meeting of Service Productivity & Innovation for Growth
05:46 Meeting ends
05:48 The 17th meeting of the Administrative Reform Promotion Council
05:59 Meeting ends
06:06 The 10th meeting of the Council for Science, Technology, and Innovation
06:29 Meeting ends
06:30 Depart from the office
06:35 Arrive at the official residence of the Lower House Speaker in Nagata-Cho, Tokyo. Informal discussion with Lower House Speaker Oshima Tadamori, Lower House Vice-Speaker Kawabata Tatsuo, Chairman of LDP General Council Nikai Toshihiro, Chairperson of LDP Policy Research Council Inada Tomomi, and other LDP cadres
08:16 Depart from the official residence of the Lower House Speaker
08:33 Arrive at the private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Friday, June 19, 2015AM
12:00 At the private residence (no visitors)
07:46 Depart from private residence
07:59 Arrive at the office
08:08 Meeting of the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters
08:16 Meeting ends
08:20 Cabinet meeting
08:39 Cabinet meeting end
08:40 Speak with Minister of Justice Kamikawa Yoko
08:43 End speaking with Ms. Kamikawa
08:44 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
09:10 End meeting with Mr. Kato
09:24 Depart from the office
09:25 Arrive at the Diet
09:26 Enter Lower House Committee Room No.16
09:30 Meeting of the Committee on Health, Labour, and Welfare of the Lower House
10:33 Leave in the middle of the meeting
10:35 Depart from the Diet
10:36 Arrive at the office
10:37 Meet with former Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Masuda Hiroya
10:52 End meeting with Mr. Masuda
10:57 Meet with former Prime Minister Mori Yoshiro, Secretary-General of Japan-Korea Parliamentarians’ Union Kawamura Takeo
11:35 End meeting with Mr. Mori and Mr. Kawamura

Tomorrow’s seminar is the first ever attempt to gather government representatives, members of international organizations, intellectuals, and members of NGOs who have been involved in the areas of peacebuilding, national reconciliation and democratization in Asian countries. I would like to conclude my address and expression of gratitude to you by stating my hope that this seminar will provide a means for all of you to have a meaningful exchange of opinions, and be an opportunity to communicate your collective wisdom to the international community as we work to build even greater peace and prosperity in Asia.

PMAttend a commemorative photo session with outreach guestsWorking lunch with outreach guests on the theme of development, women, health and AfricaHold a press conference in the city of Munich

Tuesday, June 9, 2015AM(In transit)

PM04:47 Arrive at Haneda Airport from Germany on personal government aircraft with wife Akie, completing attendance of the G7 Summit05:04 Depart from airport05:26 Arrive at Imperial Palace. Register return to Japan05:33 Depart from Imperial Palace05:47 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

AM12:00 At private residence (no visitors)08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)09:41 Depart from private residence09:55 Arrive at Hotel New Otani in Kioi-Cho, Tokyo. Attend the 85th General Meeting of the Japan Association of City Mayors in the banquet hall Tsuru within the hotel, deliver address10:17 Depart from hotel10:22 Arrive at office10:36 Meet with Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira, Vice-Minister of Cabinet Office Matsuyama Kenji, and Cabinet Office Director-Generals for Policies on Cohesive Society Maekawa Mamoru, Habuka Shigeki, and Tawa Hiroshi10:58 End meeting with Mr. Amari, Mr. Matsuyama, Mr. Maekawa, Mr. Habuka, and Mr. Tawa10:59 Meet with wife Junko of former Lower House Speaker, the late Machimura Nobutaka11:14 End meeting with Ms. Machimura Junko

PM12:01 Meeting of the Committee on Health, Labor, and Welfare of the Lower House adjourns, leave Lower House Committee Room No.1612:03 Depart the Diet12:04 Arrive at the office12:06 LDP Research Commission on Regional Diplomatic and Economic Partnership Chairman Komura Masahiko, Chairman of LDP Headquarters for Regional Diplomatic and Economic Partnership Eto Seishiro, and Director of LDP Foreign Affairs Division Akiba Kenya12:19 End meeting with Mr. Komura, Mr. Eto, and Mr. Akiba01:39 Meet with Minister in charge of TPP Amari Akira, Chief Domestic Coordinator of Governmental Headquarters for TPP Sasaki Toyonari, Chief Negotiator of Government Headquarters for the TPP Tsuruoka Koji, Deputy Chief Negotiator of Government Headquarters for TPP Oe Hiroshi and others02:10 End meeting with Mr. Amari, Mr. Sasaki, Mr. Tsuruoka, and Mr. Oe02:11 Meet with Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira, Vice-Minister of Cabinet Office Matsuyama Kenji, Cabinet Office’s Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Tawa Hiroshi02:18 End meeting with Mr. Amari, Mr. Matsuyama, and Mr. Tawa02:25 Receive a courtesy call from Admiral Harry B. Harris, Jr. Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command02:46 Courtesy call ends02:47 Receive a courtesy call from President of Center for American Progress Neera Tanden03:20 Courtesy call ends03:23 Meet with Governor of Fukushima Prefecture Uchibori Masao. Former Minister for Reconstruction Nemoto Takumi also attends03:37 End meeting with Mr. Uchibori03:38 Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Special Envoy for Peace in the Middle East Kohno Masaharu, Former Commissioner of Agency for Cultural Affairs Kondo Seiichi enter 03:51 Mr. Kohno and Mr. Kondo leave04:07 Mr. Saiki leaves04:08 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru04:36 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura05:02 The sixth meeting of the Council on Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy in Japan05:05 Meeting ends05:51 Deliver an address for the inauguration of Japanese Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives Suganuma Kenichi and other ambassadors05:56 Finish the address05:57 Depart from office06:03 Arrive at Izakaya Fukunohana- Tameike-Sanno in Akasaka, Tokyo. Informal talks with Head of Yamaguchi Prefecture’s Representative Office in Tokyo Murata Dai and others 06:43 Depart from the Izakaya06:58 Arrive at Japanese restaurant Ginza Syotoh in Ginza, Tokyo. Dinner with wife Akie09:11 Depart from office09:34 Arrive at private residence

PM12:03 Arrive at Yakushima Airport12:09 Depart from the airport12:26 Arrive at a welfare facility in Yakushima Town. Encourage the residents who had evacuated there12:35 Depart from the facility12:41 Depart from the Miyanoura branch of the Yakushima Town Hall. Hear an explanation on the state of damage and state of evacuation, and then exchange views with Governor of Kagoshima Prefecture Ito Yuichiro and Mayor of Yakushima Town Araki Koji01:08 Finish exchanging views01:09 Encourage the members of the Yakushima Town Disaster Headquarters01:12 Finish encouraging the members01:13 Lunch with Governor of Kagoshima Prefecture Ito Yuichiro and Mayor of Yakushima Town Araki Koji01:22 Lunch ends01:28 Arrive at the Miyanoura Community Hall, now an evacuation center01:30 Exchange views with residents who had evacuated there01:38 Finish exchanging views 01:40 Encourage the primary school and middle school students who had evacuated there. Commemorative Photo session01:44 Commemorative Photo session ends01:49 Interview open to all media: when asked “how will the government handle the situation of the residents from Kuchinoerabu island and other places in the future,” Mr. Abe answers, “Based on observations of the situation, the government will accelerate the preparation for the temporary visits and the building of temporary residences and will strive to restore the damaged reputation.”01:54 Interview ends01:58 Depart from the community hall02:15 Arrive at the Yakushima Airport 02:26 Depart from the airport by JASDF’s C1 Transport02:49 Arrive at Kagoshima Airport03:09 Depart from the airport by Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF)’s U4 plane04:29 Arrive at Haneda Airport04:40 Depart from the airport05:01 Arrive at official residence

Sunday, June 14, 2015

AM11:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)Stay at official residence throughout morning

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Jan Ruff-O'Herne, 93, stands in the front garden of her beautiful stone house in Adelaide.

A great grandmother, she has many reasons to look back on her life with immense satisfaction. Sustained by her talented, artistic family, nourished by her deep Christian faith, she describes herself as "lucky".

But there were dark days that have shaped her life too.

As a young woman, she was imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II, along with her family and many other Dutch civilians in what was then the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia.

But worse was to come. One day Japanese troops came to make a selection, dragging 10 terrified women and girls from their families to life as forced sex slaves in a military-run brothel.

The first night was the worst.

"The tears were streaming down my face as he raped me. It seemed as though he would never stop," she said.

Ms Ruff-O'Herne's situation only got worse when she realised she was pregnant.

"I was absolutely terrified. How could I give birth and love a child conceived in such horror?" she asked.

After being force-fed pills, she miscarried.

For 50 years she kept silent about her ordeal. She and her British husband migrated to Australia for a new start, but the nightmares and fears her wartime horrors would be discovered kept her quiet.

In the early 1990s she was inspired by the courage of some of the Korean women who were speaking out, demanding an apology and compensation.

Summoning all her courage she travelled to Tokyo to tell her story.

It shocked the Japanese to hear this now-Australian woman was also a victim of sexual slavery facilitated and organised by the Japanese military.

For the next two decades Ms Ruff-O'Herne travelled the world campaigning against rape in war.

"Women should never be raped in war; rape should not be accepted because it's war," she said.

"That is one good thing that has come out of speaking out."

'I'm not going to die, I'll live forever'

She is still calling for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to apologise and offer compensation — a campaign that gained new momentum after he did offer words of regret and millions of dollars for a compensation fund in December, but only for the Korean survivors.

Why not her, why not the victims from China and the Philippines, she asked.

It is a question she hoped might be answered by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, in Japan this week for talks, including with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.

Ms Bishop welcomed the deal done between the South Korean and Japanese governments, saying: "Australia will consider it, but at this stage we are working closely with both Korea and Japan to understand the implications of it for this part of the world."

The implications appear crystal clear to a 93-year-old lady in Adelaide, with a message for the Japanese Prime Minister.

"He's waiting for us all to be dead but I'm not going to die, I'm going to live forever," she said, with a long, hearty laugh.

Just in case she is wrong about that, her family will take up the fight, determined a terrible history will not be buried with the last of the victims.

U.S. GLOBAL LEADERSHIP UNDER THE NEXT PRESIDENT. 2/8, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: The German Marshall Fund. Speakers: Derek Chollet, Counselor, Senior Advisor, Security and Defense Policy, The German Marshall Fund of the United States; Andrew Shearer, Visiting Fellow, CSIS, Former Australian National Security Advisor; Daniel Twining, Senior Fellow for Asia, The German Marshall Fund of the United States; Geoff Dyer, Former Beijing Bureau Chief, Financial Times; Moderator: Joshua Walker, Transatlantic Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States. (Livestreamed).

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN COMBATING TERRORISM: REVIEW OF 2015 AND OUTLOOK FOR 2016. 2/8, 2:00-4:00pm. Sponsor: Potomac Institute of Policy Studies. Speakers: Michael S. Swetnam, CEO and Chairman, Potomac Institute; Lieut. Gen. Vincent R. Stewart, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; Gov. Tom Ridge, First Assistant to the President for Homeland Security; Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, Former United States Senator and Attorney General of the State of Connecticut; Maj. Gen. Omar Al Khaldi, The Defense, Military, Naval and Air Attache, Embassy of Jordan; Gamini Keerawella, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Sri Lanka; Alfred Gray, Twenty-Ninth Commander of the United States Marine Corps. (Livestreamed).

Hiroko Kuniya, the widely respected anchor for NHK’s stellar “Close-up Gendai” news analysis program, has been ousted from her position after 23 years with the show. She now joins a growing list of prominent news presenters and commentators who have discovered the apparent perils of not kowtowing to the government. She will remain on air in her 7:30 p.m. slot until April, so enjoy this journalistic giant among pygmies while you can.

Kuniya declined to comment on her impending departure, but told me by email about her approach to journalism.

“I have consciously been trying to follow in the footsteps of Ted Koppel,” she said. “When I was studying in the U.S., (the news program) ‘Nightline’ started and I remember being glued to his fair and in-depth interviews. He has definitely taught me what journalism should be.”

Former New York Times bureau chief Martin Fackler, who is currently journalist in residence at the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, says Kuniya’s work at the show stood apart from that of her peers.

“‘Close-up Gendai’ was refreshing because it was one of the few efforts by NHK or any major media to do anything remotely approaching investigative, public-interest journalism, and in a prominent time slot,” he says. “Just by going outside the press clubs to even talk about social problems — and then having the temerity to ask the obvious questions — ‘Close-Up Gendai’ was a challenge to the well-managed official version of reality that appears, say, on NHK’s own regular newscasts. I think this is why the show, and Kuniya, had remained popular for so long.”

Baseball and yakuza expert Robert Whiting, who appeared on the program, believes Kuniya is “class personified.”

“Her legacy is her intelligence and professionalism in her reporting,” he says. “(She is) a rarity in Japanese television: a female anchor, Ivy League education and as fluent in English as she was in Japanese.”

Whiting also notes that she is always well-prepared for interviews. He was surprised at how much she knew about baseball, which came through particularly in a series of questions about the “wear and tear on pitchers’ arms and how much the Japanese system contributed to that.”

Sophia University’s Koichi Nakano praises the scope of Kuniya’s interviews, ranging from nuclear refugees to labor deregulation and the lack of female representation in politics. He admires her as “a rare TV journalist who presented solid, probing stories, all the while avoiding making herself the story.”

Michael Cucek, an adjunct professor at Waseda University, feels “Close-up Gendai” is of uneven quality, but admires the way it has been able to frame and analyze complicated policy issues such as rural redevelopment, depopulation, immigration and child care.

“Being dull has played a part in the program’s longevity — its producers poking and prodding but never wounding politicians, bureaucrats and other vital actors —and in the TV game, longevity is the standard of success,” he says.

Paraphrasing a Japanese proverb, Cucek concludes that “Kuniya’s legacy is of keeping one’s capacities hidden in order to prevail in the spotlight.”

Intelligent, critical journalism is under siege in Abe’s Japan, as the nation has plummeted in press freedom rankings, from 11th place in 2010 to 61st in 2015 according to Reporters Without Borders, which cites the state secrecy law and political intervention in news coverage as reasons for the drop. One notorious example of such intervention was the prime minister’s appointment of Katsuto Momii, a political crony with no media experience, as NHK president. Momii has been disastrous for the broadcaster’s reputation right from his first press conference, downplaying the “comfort women” issue regarding wartime sexual slavery and proclaiming Pyongyang-esque rules: “When the government says right we can’t say left.”

Andrew Horvat, a professor at Josai International University and former president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan believes Momii “sees his role not as the head of a ‘public broadcaster’ whose mandate is to guarantee that pluralism is maintained in news reporting, but as a de facto government appointee, directing a ‘state broadcasting’ organization that acts as a disseminator of policies already decided by those in power.”

Insiders at NHK also complain that the atmosphere has become much more politicized under Momii, and what little critical coverage of the government that once aired has all but disappeared.

“It is not a coincidence that controversial news reporters are being removed from not just NHK but any program that politicians complain about,” Horvat says, referring to Shigeaki Koga and Ichiro Furutachi from TV Asahi’s “Hodo Station,” and TBS “News 23″ commentator Shigetada Kishii, who dared to criticize the government on its handling of new security legislation. Kensuke Okoshi, the anchor of NHK’s “News Watch 9,” and TBS veteran Monta Mino have also been purged.

“Major media companies appear in full retreat under political and social pressure in the Abe era,” Fackler says. “Kuniya is just the latest high-profile journalist to be muzzled by media companies that appear to have grown incredibly risk-adverse, seeking to play it safe by just repeating what they are told in the press clubs, and shunning any topic or story that might draw criticism.

“The result has been the almost complete disappearance of the sort of independent, public-interest journalism that ‘Close-up Gendai’ could, in its best moments, offer.”

It appears the decision to oust Kuniya came because of a July 2014 interview with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, in which she crossed the invisible line accepted by Japan’s craven media by asking an unscripted follow-up question that rattled the politician. He had prepared answers and was thus flustered when she gently reiterated the question he had artfully danced around (twice) regarding Abe’s unpopular reinterpretation of Article 9 of the Constitution. It was all polite and low-key, nothing like, for example, BBC’s interview program “Hard Talk,” in which the hosts often go for the jugular.

It was later reported that Suga was infuriated by being put on the spot. From that time on, Kuniya was a marked journalist and her political enemies bided their time, waiting for an opportune moment to strike. When her program aired a staged interview last spring that misrepresented the background of a source, they pounced.

“If all programs in Japan that resorted to an occasional staged interview were shut down, there would be nothing but blank TV screens throughout the country,” says Horvat, who adds that the real reason Kuniya has to go is because “political leaders did not like her incisive reporting.”

“She is an intelligent news reporter and the people in power in Japan today would prefer to have Japan’s TV screens populated by colorful clowns and polite news readers,” he adds.

Hideko Yoshimoto, an associate professor at Yamaguchi Prefectural University, agrees that the non-renewal of Kuniya’s contract was retribution. She also notes there is prejudice against older women on television and a preference for young, cute women regardless of their talent. In her view, Kuniya’s departure means the “death of once-decent NHK journalism.”

Sophia’s Nakano is concerned that the media is severely handicapped in holding the government accountable because journalists now understand the cost of crossing Abe.

“First Koga, then Furutachi, Kishii and now Kuniya — it does look like the Abe government has no more serious critical reporting of news that it needs to be concerned about from April,” Nakano says.

The media lapdog has been well and truly muzzled, and just in time for Diet elections.

About Us

APP is a Washington research center studying the U.S. policy relationship with Northeast Asia. We provide factual context and informed insight on Asian science, finance, politics, security, history, and public policy.